What would happen if a Slayer was turned into a vampire? Could that even be done? I suppose that it isn’t so much an issue now that there are multiple Slayers, not just “the One In Every Generation.” But let’s imagine that at the end of “Prophecy Girl” (wherein Buffy dies for the first time), the Master did not just toss Buffy aside into a pool of shallow water. Instead, he ‘turns’ her*. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” then becomes “Buffy the Vampire”.
Would Buffy still have augmented “Slayer” powers, only augmented further by her newfound vampire strength?
Would she be in league with the vampires, or continue hunting them?
Would the line of Slayers get corrupted?
Would Kendra and subsequently Faith and the legions of new Slayers get activated, or would the magical equivalent of a Systems Error shut down the procession of new Slayers?
I supposed Joss Whedon himself would argue that when a person becomes a vampire, that person is dead, the vampire merely mimics the person’s living identity, and that nothing of the original person survives. Unfortunately, the evolution (or devolution, depending on your viewpoint) of Spike from badass to (wimpy) tortured soul flies in the face of this. Something of “William the Bloody Awful Poet’s” original personality survived. Otherwise, he couldn’t have fallen in love with Buffy in the first place.
I know it was stated once or twice that to be turned into a vampire requires that the victim be a willing participant. But that just doesn’t seem to hold water. There are too damn many vamps around for that to be entirely true!
Well, if you look at the mechanics for the role-playing game, slayers are resistant to becoming vampires, but not entirely immune. There are actual rules for what happens to stats and stuff, but, as I don’t have the books with me at work, I couldn’t tell you what they are. I can post them when I get home.
Also, this BtVS novel explores the idea of a slayer that’s been turned.
I imagine that the original Watchers must have considered the possibility. I also imagine that it must have happened at some point. Turning a Slayer is just too perfect a victory for no one to have done it. FWIW, I think that the moment the heart stops beating, a new slayer is called. After all, Buffy was only dead for a minute. And I think “no heartbeat” is how the primitive people who started the line would have defined “dead.”
I also don’t think that a person has to be willing to be turned. The victim is dying and barely conscious when it happens. Sure, they have to drink, but in that state, someone drops some liquid in your mouth, you swallow. Granted, a slayer would understand what was happening and try to resist, but most people would never know what was actually occurring until it was already done.
I thought they were going do to that in Angel S4/Buffy S7. When Faith and Angelus were fighting in that warehouse and the episode ended with him beginning to feed on her, I was positive we were going to see a vampiric slayer. How could Angelus possibly resist the opportunity to turn a slayer?
Personally, I think that would’ve been much more interesting.
I’ve also wondered why a vampire never tried to turn a slayer
I think it’s the whole “mortal enemy” thing. Although!! in BtVS 5.1, Dracula intended to turn Buffy. He was enamored of (lusted for?) her and asked her to drink of him. She refused until he pointed out that it was only a drop and would be enough to turn her…yet.
I agree with Lord Ashtar. A vampiric Faith, regardless of her slayer status, would have been juicy indeed
Angelus WAS trying to turn her. That was the point: Faith was deliberately trying to get him to the point where he would do that, so her drugged blood could subdue him.
I can’t agree that it would have been more interesting. What it would have done is derail the whole season (which was already pretty damn complicated).
While I agree that it would have overloaded the season, I do think it would have been damned entertaining to see Angel and Wesley trying to convince Buffy and Willow to re-ensoul her, while Buffy and Willow try to convince Angel and Wesley that her soul wasn’t exactly exemplary anyway, and that she should be staked immediately if not sooner.
On the subject of slayers turning into vampires, it happened to Buffy in the first season episode about everyone’s nightmares becoming reality (in addition to Buffy being turned, Willow becomes a rather cute opera singer in a kimono, Giles looses the ability to read, and Xander is chased by a freaky clown with a kitchen knife. For his part, Xander confronts his fear, punching the clown in the face before running away. Also, there are giant bees.)
That said, at the conclusion of the episode, everyone was un-nightmared (had to do with a psychic kid having nightmares or something like that) so Buffy was only a vampire for about 15 minutes. Good episode.
Willow: “Personal question?”
Xander: “Yeah, shoot.”
Willow: “When Buffy was a vampire, you weren’t still, like, attracted to her, were
you?”
Xander: “Willow, how can you–I mean, that’s really bent! She was…grotesque!”
Willow: “Still dug her, huh?”
Xander: “I’m sick. I need help.”
Willow: “Don’t I know it.”
AND she’d still have all her old slayer skills and strength, along with the added strength that all vampires seem to magically acquire
So, VampBuffy turns the next slayer, who turns the next slayer, and so forth until, well, i’ll let your imaginatios fill in the blanks
Well, having died twice yet still retaining her powers, clearly dying doesn’t get rid of the powers from the current slayer. It triggers them to go to a new slater, but they still stay with the old one should she come back to life.
And I think that in the season 1 ep where she was a vamp, she wasn’t a slayer that was turned into a vampire, she was just a plain ol’ vampire.
Personally, I don’t think much would happen. From what we’ve seen, a slayer and a vampire have about equal strength levels, and a vampire is harder to kill, so I don’t see what a vampire would gain if it had slayer powers.
Now, having, say, Willow become a vampire when she was uber-witch, now we’re talking serious bad mojo.
And as a slight hijack question…what if a werewolf is turned? I assume that since lycantropsy seems to be more of a disease, that it would end at death, and the person would be a normal vamp. But maybe the three nights he would be a werewolf he is the equivilant of a vampire werewolf? And has to feed on the blood of other werewolves? :dubious:
yeah I know, but she retained her powers when she returned to life. What if she had stayed dead? If she had remained a vampire, the next slayer woulda inherited her powers. Not that Buffy would have lost them–she didn’t when Faith and Kendra were activated. She woulda been a worthy adversary to the next slayer, but I think good would have continued to win out over evil and the new slayer would have found a way to get over on her. Buffy’s greatest strength was not physical. She would have lost her most powerful assests when she lost her soul.
In one Angel ep Angel mentions that Buffy is stronger than he is. I imagine a trained slayer, with grr face strength bouns, resistance to pain, near invulnerability, and a taste for evil would be one bad mother f----r.
And that might actually be one of the reasons a vampire smart/strong enough to kill a slayer would want her to stay dead: serious competition. Demonic creatures in the buffyverse like minions of one form or another, not rivals. Minions will protect you, while rivals will kill you when you’re not looking.
Do you want bad-ass slayer vamp coming into your nest and cutting loose for no better reason than it seemed like a fun idea at the time?
